By David Ayliffe
I have some questions for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and for the Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet who is currently investigating whether the former Sports Minister did naughty things with money prior to the last election.
Somehow I don’t think my questions will be answered but I’m convinced the truth will out soon.
Primary focus is on former Minister for Sport, Bridget McKenzie who ignored advice from Sports Australia, the independent body charged with giving her advice on matters like this to allocate $100 million in grants to electorates identified in a colour coded spreadsheet of being deserving of some vote buying dollars.
But surely there’s a much bigger story.
My questions are central to that. Consider:
- Was the former Minister acting on her own with a plan to allocate funds according to her own criteria? Was it her idea or someone else’s?
- Was it only her department involved in this process?
- Was no-one outside of the Department aware of her actions?
- Was she acting completely alone or actually at the behest of the Coalition and if so who was pulling her strings?
- More especially who in Cabinet was privy to these decisions? The Prime Minister? Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack (leader of the Nationals of which Bridget is Deputy Leader) or someone else?
Those questions are just a beginning. Well, the reality we know. The funds were allocated. Many community groups benefited but not the ones that Sports Australia recommended.
So where does the buck really stop? Someone has to take the blame unless by some miracle the Secretary of the Department can somehow blame Chinese interference for blurring the decision-making process that led to this debacle. If the blame rests on Bridget who might she bring down with her unless she is happy to fall on her sword or the sword of someone else’s forging?
Interesting times.
If I was Bridget and saw that Buck moving, I’d get my rifle out and I’d be quick to take a shot. Why should I go down alone?
But then maybe we will all forget about it just like we forgot about Prime Minister Scomo reportedly spending $185 million, much more than Bridget’s measly effort, to reopen Christmas Island detention centre and many millions more since to imprison a mother, father and two very dangerous children since! As some of us recall that expenditure was of course all about the elections too and not about any alleged scare of boat people flooding us.
And some people like to talk about Labor’s mismanagement of money. Sheeesh!
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Best thing that could happen, that she takes the whole shitshow with her.The bribe will have to be enormous.But then again,taxpayers have very deep pockets and Schmo has very long arms.
Bludgeit Mc Kenzie is a Friday night pub type, answers being limited to yes or no. She wasn’t alone, will fall, will be left to do a Lt, Calley while the order givers above cruise on, demanding loyalty. Loyalty to shitskulls like the Morrison Joyce types? You could mould better men out of park dogdroppings. This nongovernment of nonhumans and nonsense and nonscience is excruciating shitsmeared junk.
I love reading PP’s comments. One day he will tell us what he really thinks!
Truly breathtaking that aledgedly intelligent and competent people could be so clumsy in their accident prone behaviour. That such incriminating evidence, the colour coded papers, now well and truly in the puplic domain, were not shredded. Maybe originals were but some enterprising underling made a copy first.
Australia’s own little Watergate, clumsy plumbers, now there is water leaking everywhere.
Bridget, you have become the clay target and a better shooter than you will ever be has just blasted you to smithereens, have some grace and disappear among the rubble that is the remnants of your career. If you like, take some of your rotten colleagues with you.
This is the LEE HARVEY OSWALD question really. Not sure if they will kill her before she can testify….but this is all way above her intelligence level.
The ‘government’ have avoided responsibility for many things so far, but this little episode should make a difference. The question remains, who will she take with her: so many choices, why not take the lot.
This little ‘pea and thimble’ trick reeks of ‘paying off ALP debt’ which many believe now that we had a ‘forecasted surplus’.
Bridget is barnababy in a frock
The buck never stops with the Nationals
Blaming Chinese interference… or Labor. Surely it was all Labor’s fault, somehow?.
This cohort of legislating clowns is playing to its voting cohort – those of lower intelligence and greater gullibility than themselves, who will always remain a majority.
Electoral success has always depended on who can deceive more of the deliberately and/or deficiently ignorant majority of the population.
Yez are all dreamin’. I’ve got one of Grumpy Geezer’s mythical slabs to say she’ll dodge the bullet and I’ll even take small bets on a couple of the “more worthy” clubs that missed out, suddenly finding $30,000 hush money in their account.
This smug female of the canine species, reminds me of a scion of the landed gentry, snooty nosed, just waltsing through life with nothing or no one to make her accountable. Conservative politics in Australia is based on when one’s ancestors arrived and how much loot they accumulated. That’s one reason the ‘good’ country folk and people on the land keep voting for this pack of bastards, even when its against their own interests and good sense.
I would really like to see. all those clubs that were eligible to receive Grants sue this government,their actions in selecting clubs that were never eligible for funding, but to win an election is corruption ,it is time people started to fight back ,We all know the answer to the question so many people were asking ,HOW did they win the election
So the colour coded spreadsheet is the smoking gun and rorting of the scheme has obviously been proven.
Surely Scottie’s biggest concern should be the perception that his Govt and election win could have no validation?
Isn’t that the logical conclusion?
Looks like Morrison is hoping this just goes away or gets submerged by the news cycle. It’s probably all to difficult for him as the Nats.are well practised at protecting their own and there is undoubtedly a web of people involved in this corruption. The whole thing is utterly reprehensible, an utter disgrace.
Apparently all of the assessments for the grants have now been made public. That would then generate the question of justification for her choices, each and every one of them.
Don’t worry, chaps. You are all in lather about nothing. Watch carefully how the spinmeisters in the employ of Scomo and his “donors”, are already fabricating stories, distractions, obfuscations etc. which will then be broadcast and repeated ad nauseum by the “free press” now fully owned by the oligarchs. In a few weeks, “everyone” will believe there was nothing to see there, just as they believe the bush-fires were lit by the “greenies”, who also “prevented back-burning/ hazard reduction” even though they were not in power in any state or territory concerned. “Everyone” already knows that the coalition is better with money, in spite of some rorting. Labor would have been far worse and “everyone knows it”. Andrew Bolt will let everyone know “the facts” as manufactured by the IPA.
How on Earth did we get to the point where our government thought they could get away with this blatantly corrupted process without being exposed? How arrogant is that?
Still, ‘arrogance is blind to the stumbling block’.
A recent survey says that 49% of subjects think that this woman should stay in office !
That Brad Black is how this government gets away with corruption on a grand scale.
Stephengb, my teeth nearly fell out reading that.
Can’t get too excited about Bridget and her (mal)administration of this pork, provided by the Treasurer et al for this particular purpose.. It’s not as though she sent it offshore for a Caribbean holiday (as Angus Taylor did) nor did she line her own pockets to any great extent but, nevertheless, her actions have drawn the political flies so some penalty must be imposed or at least be seen to be imposed.
But Bridget is not yet outta aces. Not by a long shot. For a start, she possesses all the incriminating correspondence (most probably with backups in several locations). And don’t forget her political staffers who know the ins and outs of these deals and who depend on her for their immediate futures. Reasonable to assume they did some backing up themselves. She’s also the female Deputy Leader of the Nationals whose vote goes to Leader Michael McCormack who is also in desperate political need to keep the likes of Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce far from the reins of power.
Methinks Bridget’s in for a soft landing.
I wonder if there has ever been in Australia a Nation Wide Strike By Volunteers?….These hard working people have had the biggest kick in the guts…All those poor voluntary officials at the sporting clubs that were cheated out of taxpayers financial support, no doubt after spending many hours, and their own money, applying for grants for their local sports have been absolutely “shit on”. If ever there was a case for nation wide revolt? How sick has this country become? And all morrison can say is “I don’t Accept The Premise Of Your Question”. Just go morrison you bloody lunatic. Miracle man? phhhtttt!
” Reasonable to assume they did some backing up themselves. ”
It appears the staffer in Angus Taylor’s office who “sourced” the forged document has been well rewarded for his silence.
“Documents lodged with the ACT Electoral Commission late last week show Manuatu is to be the new registered officer for the Liberal Party’s Canberra division. The party’s registered officer is an official position registered with the electoral commission, which has significant powers, including the authority to nominate and disendorse candidates.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/angus-taylor-staffer-turns-up-in-key-act-libs-position-20200129-p53vo0.html
Yes KL, read that today. Seems that the bounds of propriety are being stretched like never before. Trumpism (and its many variations) is alive and well across the developed world showing how thin the veneer of ‘civilization’ actually is. ‘Tis a new (but not better) world in which we live.
They have also effectively silenced the clubs that missed out on funding by dangling the idea that there might be more money to dish out – resubmit your paperwork and stop talking to the press and lawyers.
Yep. And then everyone’s a winner. A cash splash across the nation. Just like Rudd did. Too easy. A political master stroke turning adversity into many more political announceables. Besides every dollar remains in the country providing jobs, jobs and even more jobs. All hail Bridget. (Or perhaps something like that.).
The really hilarious part is where Morrison says he’s “the Prime Minister for standards”….except he was talking about dress codes for citizenship ceremonies.
And then when he was picking Hurley for GG….
“It was General Hurley who first spoke the words; “The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept,” which is a lesson to all of us. It’s a phrase that embodies what Australian leadership is all about.”
Uh huh….
David, you’re stretching my memory here, but when Julia Gillard was PM we worked on a policy to give volunteers some recognition – be damned if I can remember what it was about – only to have Abbott knock it on the head. We were gobsmacked. They would surely have gone on strike if the details of it had have been made public.
I hate not remembering things.
I know everything. Just can’t remember it all.
Kaye, he certainly is the Prime Minister for standards.
But god damn, those standards are low.
David – I’d rather have the Chinese interference in the election, than that of shifty-Scotty and beguiling Bridget.
MT, at least you remember that you know all.You should be PM.
Yes, the government’s response is going to be another attempt at “Restoring Integrity”.
Once again they have mistaken the location for where this should take place.
Don’t keep talking about Bridget Friday-Pubroote, for sluts for money, career, pose, benefits and gang loyalty let the rest of us down and down (how far down is Downer? ) This low level of conservative crooked cronyism is eternally obvious. William the Conqueror did it, claiming everything in a burst of murder, theft, acquisition, coercion, slavery, and that got passed on over long ages, establishing an eventual empire based on…the murder, humiliation, theft, acquisition, misery, agony, of the countless victims. We the ruled are expected to submit. I’d sooner contribute to a big axe, a guillotine, a firing squad’s ammunition, than remain feeling betrayed and humiliated. So?